r/graphic_design • u/No-Pen-5125 • 15d ago
Portfolio/CV Review Yes or no to the boxes?
Working on my CV right now. Do we like the boxes or is it better to just keep the skills in a straight list like the bottom? Don’t want it to be too much or anything, but I wanted a way to stretch the text to the margins a bit more since it looked out of place with the rest of my type. It’s a bit tedious to do so I just want to know if I should keep it or stop now before I spend too much time on it.
Thanks in advance!
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u/f314 15d ago
Dude, you can't spell "Premiere Pro" wrong twice and then put down "Attention to detail" as a skill...
I would also strongly suggest you separate soft skills from tools/software.
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u/No-Pen-5125 15d ago
I know 😩 this is still in the rough draft stages, I will be going through everything afterwards since that’s my preferred way of working! I just wanted to know opinions about the boxes specifically. I will definitely put software separately though, thank you.
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u/red8981 15d ago
Er.. No box. Are you applying for graphic design jobs?
might want to check your spelling too.
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u/red8981 15d ago
well, OP didnt respond to my question... I will leave this here for future readers.
For designers, I think we fall into this trap of making resume/cv beautiful, while it is nice to have it well designed, but you should also consider your audience.
If you applying to design agency or place that value design/focus on design, sure, it probably will get read.
If you applying to corporations that has a graphic department, you better off doing it in Microsoft Word and keeping it simple. Don't use Illustrator, maybe Indesign is OK. And especially DO NOT outline your font, graphics is not going to pass ATS at all.
The PDF that generated by Ilustrator doesn't get scanned properly with ATS. I tested with my resume in one of those ATS tester website and it spit out random words and messy graphics that gets combined.
My experience a few years back, so tread carefully with your beautiful Resumes/CVs
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u/Sasataf12 15d ago
I think we fall into this trap of making resume/cv beautiful, while it is nice to have it well designed, but you should also consider your audience.
It's absolutely crucial your resume is well designed and beautiful. A graphic department at a large corporation is still staffed with professional graphic designers that will see your resume.
Do not use MS Word or Illustrator. Use InDesign.
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u/MrDingster 15d ago
My CV has always been a fairly tidy Word document to help recruiters. My portfolio is where my skill is, not in a CV. No self respecting agency will hire you on the basis of a well designed CV. It might help, but your portfolio is the only thing they really care about.
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u/Sasataf12 15d ago
You CV is still indicative of your design skills.
Telling people that agency's don't care about how well your CV is designed, in an industry that's EXTREMELY competitive, is just terrible advice.
Everything you put in front of a potential employer should be well designed.
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u/MrDingster 14d ago
In over 20 years of working in the creative industry, how my CV looks has never mattered once. Its tidy and formatted well, but you know how many interviewers have talked about how my CV is designed? Not one, ever. You know how many have talked about my portfolio? All of them. If you think putting effort in to your CV design has helped secure you work, cool, carry on doing it, but in my experience it’s not mattered at all.
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u/Sasataf12 14d ago
Its tidy and formatted well
Which is exactly what I've been saying. I don't know why you think a well designed CV doesn't matter when you're doing exactly that.
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u/MrDingster 14d ago
But it’s not really designed compared to what you were inferring it should be from a level of effort.
It’s a word doc, it’s all in one typeface (2 weights), there are no columns, graphics, or colours. It’s not what I would call pleasing to look at, but the information is very legible and it succeeds at what it needs to do, ie convey some information quickly. It took me less than 5 minutes to make it, around the same to update it each time and hasn’t really changed how it looks in over 10 years. Does it look better than other Word CVs? Probably. Does it look worse than others? Absolutely, from what I’ve seen posted on this subreddit from time to time and the effort I’ve seen people put in to them.
I’m simply saying as a person who hasn’t put much thought into the design of a CV other than how legible the information is, and who regularly hires creative people from all disciplines, how your CV looks doesn’t shift the needle, how your portfolio looks, does.
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u/Sasataf12 14d ago
It’s a word doc, it’s all in one typeface (2 weights), there are no columns, graphics, or colours.
"Well designed" doesn't mean adding graphics, or using multiple columns, or applyling a seasonal color palette or any other "gimicks". You, as a designer with supposedly 20 years of experience, should know this.
"Well designed" means well designed - good heirarchy, solid type setting, well layed out, etc. You know, the things I'm assuming you've done with your CV that's "tidy and formatted well".
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u/MrDingster 14d ago
But your comment was ‘well designed and beautiful’ being critical to a graphic design CV - we could argue semantics over what well designed means, but beautiful it isn’t.
I could definitely make the whole thing look better from a design POV, but I don’t see the effort involved being time well spent. Like I said, no one has ever commented on it in an interview, and I’ve certainly not given any feedback whilst recruiting people as to the state of their CV. Unless I need someone to design me a CV, I’m only interested in their work in their portfolio so your comment still seems wildly redundant in my experience. You might well have experienced something different, I’m merely offering an alternative viewpoint to something you deem critical.
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15d ago edited 13d ago
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u/Sasataf12 15d ago
I don’t like using it either but Word will pass more tests.
If you design your doc poorly, then ATS will struggle with it. The program used is irrelevant.
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u/No-Pen-5125 15d ago
Apologies, I am planning to apply to design jobs! I am completely new to making a more professional resume beyond applying for retail positions, so I am still new to learning about what is ATS-friendly and what isn’t. Thank you for your help :)
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u/giraffesinmyhair 15d ago
I wouldn’t list skills like “creativity” and “originality” at all. I don’t really like either solution as it takes up a whole lot of valuable real estate to say you know the basic graphic design software and skills.
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u/No-Pen-5125 15d ago
Hi, would you be able to elaborate a bit, please? I’m very new to writing a professional resume to submit to design positions, so I don’t quite understand how best to list my skills. The only changes I’ve made since posting this is separating software from my soft-skills.
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u/Extension-Bad6393 15d ago
Thought the same to be honest. I would let your portfolio be the judge of your creativity and originality.
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u/Certain_Car_9984 15d ago
To be honest I think it depends on the rest of the CV but you should be more worried about your spelling
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15d ago edited 15d ago
lol "Attention to Detail"
then you spell "Premiere Pro" wrong. Twice.
Also: the boxes would make more sense online rather than a printed piece.
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u/miimo0 15d ago
Soft skills read like this is the first round of jobs you’ve applied to. If you want to go beyond programs, I would add other harder skills like traditional illustration, portrait photography, typesetting, project management, copy editing — things that you know how to do but could be encountered in the position & aren’t unmeasurable and vibes/based.
I’d also not list out each adobe program and just say something like proficient in the Adobe suite, Microsoft office, etc. Even if there’s one you’re not amazing at… there are tutorials & you’ve covered the big Adobe ones in your list already, so you shouldn’t be too caught off guard there.
Overall for a resume, you want to focus less on a skills list and more on presenting how those skills were used at each job or project on the list. And that would be included in your work history instead… Like “produced x social media graphics per week per brand on a strict timeline” or “created 15 unique spot illustrations for client y in a publication with a circulation of zzz” so the jobs have some actual highlights & not just the dates you worked them.
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u/Sasataf12 15d ago
Don't use boxes (or any other graphical elements) amongst your copy. ATS will have problems with it, and it just makes it harder for you to edit.
Don't list your skills like that. Attach your skills to the relevant job experience.
Don't list non-technical skills, i.e. anything after Figma (maybe keep illustration).
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u/WirelessTreeNuts 15d ago
First of all, a CV is a curriculum vitae and is used for applying to academic careers. Second, your resume is the first demonstration of your attention to typography and your understanding of basic design principles. Alignment, hierarchy, contrast, balance etc etc.
Boxes are usually very risky because they cut off alignment. They put elements in their own space and tell everything else on the page "you don't connect to me". When I see your skills separated in individual boxes I think what's the point of the box? It's not a button, I don't click it. It's not containing multiple things to be grouped together. It's also a visual cluster that will unnecessarily draw the eye toward a tension point on a page that is supposed to show the prospective employer you know how to make a cohesive composition.
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u/DjawnBrowne 15d ago
C.V. is the more standard term everywhere outside of the US
Agreed on all of your other points here tho 🤘
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u/lightn_ng 14d ago
We don’t know where OP is located, but outside of the US, the term CV is used widely. Especially in non-English speaking countries.
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u/pip-whip Top Contributor 15d ago
I would not mix software knowledge with other skills. They aren't parallel. And it is this lack of being able to differentiate different types of information that would make me think that you wouldn't be very good at making design decisions either.
And I know, lots of people group content like this, but when you're looking to differentiate yourself from 1,000 other applicants, don't give away things go criticize. And this is the sort of thing that irks senior designers and art directors who know what parallel content is.
Yes, list out all of the software you know well. Don't list them twice. Spell them correctly.
When it comes to the other listings from Creativity to Collaboration, I would cut them all from a list such as this. These are all qualities that are subjective and that anyone can claim to have so they are somewhat meaningless to mention. And though they are important to the role of a graphic designer, listing them like this feels disingenuous. Instead, I would find ways to include them throughout the rest of your content, the accomplishments you list at each job or talking points in your cover letter.
But that point of view does not take into consideration ATS scanning. If you kept a list like this, I would not have one list that you include on your resume every time. Instead, modify your list for each job you apply to to match the qualifications specified in the job listing. And over time, you'll likely find that similar traits appear over and over again, so if you did want to have a generic version of your resume with a list like this, use the knowledge gained over time from paying close attention to those job postings to hone your list.
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u/Extreme_Band_6097 15d ago
On top of what they said already — No boxes because the ATS machine is gonna refuse your resume. Make it as simple/basic as possible, that's how it goes with resumes.
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u/ericalm_ Creative Director 15d ago
ATS software may have problems with it.
When I’m hiring and looking through hundreds of resumes, things like this make me question the applicant’s judgement. Maybe I could get a better sense of it by going to their portfolio or digging deeper, but I’m not going to take the time to do that on a first pass when I have so many other applicants. I’m narrowing the field down to fewer than a dozen people.
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u/ObservantTortoise 15d ago
I would cut everything after illustration. Those addition adjectives are not necessary to call out. They are the absolute minimum.
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u/schommertz 15d ago
Please google "well designed CVs" or similar. - and post again. Good luck and have fun!
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u/LithiumNoir 15d ago
ATS systems are not going to read this correctly with boxes. It also will not parse correctly when trying to autofill applications.
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u/Schnitzhole 15d ago
Listing “creativity” as a skill will certainly get people’s attention, not In the way you probably want though😂
As someone that has to read resumes and hire people please STOP after “illustration”. The boxes look good.
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u/eaglegout 15d ago edited 15d ago
I wouldn’t classify originality or creativity as skills. You can use them to describe your approach to work, but I’d remove it from the skill list. Keep your skill list focused on software and demonstrable knowledge: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, print production, juggling, sword swallowing, close-up magic, etc.
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u/Half_Severe 14d ago
Graphic designers use CV’s?
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u/No-Pen-5125 14d ago
Not sure, I am still a student so I have no clue what I’m doing at the moment, but every professor I have spoken to called it a CV so I just started saying that instead.
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u/Half_Severe 14d ago
That was in jest… my point is portfolio is what gets you hired… CV is the last thing I look at. I wouldn’t get too caught in the weeds with it. But as others have pointed out, make sure spelling and grammar are all good. Oh and in graphic design there’s a lot more freedom when it comes to building your cv compared to most other corpo jobs. I tend to think the strongest ones tie-in with the look and feel of the portfolio document.
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u/sheriffderek 14d ago
It's not the boxes that are the problem. It's the spacing and padding and border-radius and line-height and size contrast.
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u/SnooPeanuts4093 Art Director 15d ago
neither list or box tells me anything about your proficiency with the software.
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u/No-Pen-5125 15d ago
Hi, what do you mean exactly? How else should I show my proficiency apart from the work in my portfolio? I’m highly proficient in the software listed, so if you have a suggestion I would appreciate it!
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u/pip-whip Top Contributor 15d ago
Showing proficiency was something that was more common when there was a design trend to add all sorts of icons and symbols to one's resume. People would use a little chart of some sort to claim to be expert, beginner, or the levels in between. But these sorts of visual representations died out when ATS review of portfolios became the norm.
I personally would not care about what you claim your proficiency level is because I'm aware of the studies that show that beginners rate their software skills as expert simply because they don't realize how much they don't know, while the experts score their abilities lower because they are aware of how much they don't know, but they are actually expert compared to others.
If you don't know the software well enough to sit down and do a project in it in a reasonable amount of time right now, don't put it on your resume at all. If you want to put it on your resume but don't have workable knowledge yet, get to work and that is how you'll be using your free time until you are able to claim proficiency.
Your portfolio should also back up your claims of software skills, which is why, imo, rating your proficiency on your resume is likely to do you more harm than good. Any software you list lower proficiency in will make your audience suspect you don't know it well enough, but claiming to be expert in all of them will make all of it less believable.
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u/No-Pen-5125 15d ago
This is what I thought! Although I’m a student I do believe I am pretty proficient in these programs, but that’s because I’ve been doing design and learning Adobe since I was 14, so it’s been a long time practicing. I don’t plan to have it written on my resume my proficiency levels since I know my portfolio can speak for itself there. I appreciate you taking the time to reply! Your comments have been incredibly helpful.
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u/SnooPeanuts4093 Art Director 15d ago edited 15d ago
Read my original comment again please. I'm telling you that there is no benefit in a list like that to me.
I don't know why that guy is suggesting you self rate your own proficiency that's of little value. I would not recommend you do that.
If you are Adobe certified it tells me something about your proficiency.
If you learned to use the software in a production environment it tells me something about your proficiency.
Listing software titles alone doesn't tell me anything, about your proficiency.
So from my perspective I would prefer candidates didnt waste their time and mine with that kind of thing. One less thing to deal with.
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